The NFL Sidesteps Jets/Bills Color-Blindness Issue – NFL News

There was a lot of controversy following last season’s Thursday night Jets/Bills game at the MetLife. All talk about NFL betting odds was forgotten as the NFL became plagued with an unexpected problem.

The NFL’s Color Rush Uniform series saw the Jets dressed in special all-green uniforms while the Bills wore all red. And the problem that emerged as a result of these color choices caught the NFL completely off guard.

Color blind fans couldn’t tell the Jets and the Bills apart. The two teams will clash once more on Thursday night in Buffalo in 2016’s first color rush game. And naturally, the NFL is taking steps to prevent a repetition of last year’s conundrum.

While the Bills will still wear their all-red outfits, the Jets will change their colors to white. In an interview, NFL Spokesman Riethmiller admitted that the league didn’t realize that for a portion of their fans, that particular uniform combination was not visible.

Heading into this season, the NFL was smart to consult a color-blindness expert. They found one in Doctor Scott E. Brodie from Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Brodie is an eye doctor who, along with two colleagues, was sent all 15 combinations of the league’s Rush Color games for 2016.

Three games that might raise problems were quickly identified, this including the Ravens (Purple) and the Browns (Brown) as well as the Seahawks (Green) and the Rams (Yellow).

The NFL intends to substitute the colors of one of the team’s in these matchups with white to solve the problem; hopefully, this problem will never crop up again.

When the Jets step out onto the Field on Thursday, they will most likely be wearing all white outfits: white gloves, cleats, pants, jerseys, socks, and helmets. Even their typical green masks will be replaced with white face masks.

The Coaches are also expected to follow this trend. They will be wearing white hats. Without the emergence of this issue previously, the Jets would have simply resorted to wearing those special all-green uniforms this season.

Eight Color Rush Uniforms were launched by the league last season, emerging in four Thursday night games. Fans will have the option to purchase some of these special suits for themselves in 2016.

While all 24 of the league’s teams are expected to get these special uniforms, at least nine won’t actually wear them this year. Of these nine, there a three that, as previously mentioned, can’t wear them because of the Color Blindness issue.

Then you have three teams that cannot wear their special uniforms because those colors would mimic the colors of their opponents in specific games. This applies to the Cardinals, Texans, and the Falcons.

You also have the Lions, the Colts, and Washington who do not have a Thursday night color Rush Game. IN the case of the Texans game with the Patriots, the Texans, being the visiting team, will wear white to distinguish themselves from their opponents.

The Falcons will also wear white at Tampa Bay, contrasting their opponent’s all red outfits. These special uniforms are expected to stick around for several years to come.